49 comments:

Somewhat toughie for me. Could score only 80%. Put Losing Ones for Losing Side and In Secret for In safety and lost many. When the 1D and 8D fell in place, I thought samosas are nearer. But it was not so.

1a. I think it is Talc not toque which is the similar sounding word.. talc is a fine material. Got Last sum wrong .. had it as lump sum so didnt get In safety and performs :( first time for me when i got a Gridman so wrong :( but uhmm lesson to check before turning in the answer sheet hee hee i guess :) enjoyed girlhood clue, game set and match clues :) tks Gridman

As usual you are alone in your thoughts Mahesh. I have no found any defects in this puzzle. And I, like several others in this blog solve not only this bu also Guardian,s puzzles, including their prize ang Genius crosswords. I have not found any devices used here which are not found in the UK puzzles.But for some reason you seem to find solving the Hindu crossword very distasteful. My principle is never to indulge in what I do not enjoy unless there is some greater benefit to be got from it.

Mahesh all of us here have had enough and more of your distasteful comments. From tomorrow onwards if you insist on such comments without substantiating your claim I will have no option other than to delete your comment.Lastly as you find all the Crosswords in The Hindu terrible/awful/disastrous etc I suggest you stop solving CW from The Hindu and restrict yourself to CWs by Rufus.

Mahesh,You have declared openly and vociferously that you like Rufus crosswords. As far as I know Rufus puzzles appear only once a week or so in The Guardian. Some crosswords set by the same compiler are published in some other UK newspapers under different pseudonyms and you may or may not be aware of them. Be that as it may be, if you want an inexhaustible supply of crosswords set by your favourite setter Rufus but without his byline, please drop a line here and I will tell you where you can find them. You can solve a Rufus puzzle every weekday without being bothered with these terrible crosswords in TH, to which you can give a wide berth.

I was taking of Rufus puzzles on weekdays. Mahesh, do you miss Rufus puzzles on Sundays? If so and if you need the fix, please drop a line here. I will tell you where on a Sunday you can solve two Rufus puzzles - yes, two - except that it's not two different puzzles but the same puzzle twice in the same issue. (It must be a terribly wonderful experience.) So not only on weekdays but also on Sundays you can have your favourite setter's work with his preponderance of CDs and DDs. To hell with THC.

I appreciated the blog am I right? There is no malaise to be held. I compliment when it's due My only intention is to assist the setter The arrogance from VJ is unacceptable . As expressed earlier I also like Sankalak and am in search of a setter with an equal skill set

Loved this 15 letter grid by the maestro...4D was the last in..8D was my CODFor the life of me cannot understand why this was a terrible puzzle...a classic puzzle that had wonderful clues strewn around the grid...

I will not deny you your opinion.But you have no right to deny me mineIf I felt it was terrible I will call it so Some of us will label a movie good some will label it bad We are only giving our honest voices

But there is no substantiation of why the puzzle is terrible...that is the problem...which are the clues that u didnt like? Whats wrong in the wordplay?if instead of denouncing it in one short sentence u can provide meaningful feedback..it will be welcomed by all..

There is a deeper malaise here. It's just not about unsubstantiated one word criticism. Even when another blogger provides a valid explanation Mahesh is unconvinced. So all of us here are on one side having the same understanding of crptic CW rules and Mahesh is on the other side. Seems to be an ideological war. Yet when Ramki provided an example from Rufus using the same device as Exa did, there is no reply. For me it appears that this is criticism for the sake of it. Mahesh why don't you contribute to one Sunday Special in this blog? It would be an experience for us too.

Many thanks to Padmanabhan and Chaturvasi for explaining eight as the answer to '23' in the Guardian clue of Thursday. It is a ritual with me to solve THC and move to the Guardian on weekdays and on Sundays. I loved solving Sadhya's Special yesterday. Thank you, Sadhya.

I might have given my opinion earlier.I feel such elaborate colour coding is unnecessary. It involves a lot of careful typing.Once the anno is given, a reader should put in some effort of his own to match the SI in clues and the components in the answers. We need to expect that much of participation by the visitor/reader.Besides on Saturdays we seem to have fewer visitors and fewer comments. That is another reason why too much of effort needn't go into the blog.

Ramesh-For ex. 8D. I agree with Vasant. I did the seme thing on paper in tiny letters ( of the same colour of course) in the clus section before filling in the grid, simply because there were so many components of charade. I was no doubt happy getting it confirmed by you. But you have to decide depending on the extra work involved, albeit on a holiday. If you don't mind doing it- once a week- it would be welcome by all and useful to some. I refer to it when I have a doubt and it is cleared instantly. You may even try numbering (1,2,3 etc.) in stead of so many colour codes to make your work simpler.

Pl. be at peace (without doing THC) and leave us in peace. We find it very difficult and hurtful to read about some of our favourite setters' puzzles being dismissed in one stroke as 'terrible' If you have Rufus, we have our own. Of course, as you rightly said you are free to have your own opinion, but there is no reason to keep publishing it to all repeatedly. All of us fail to understand why you still keep reading/ trying to solve in spite of not liking them. Either stop doing them or stop thrusting your opinions on us. Both of us have better jobs to do.

Mahesh,I am really sorry for you.I have been a member, blogger, commenter here since the blog was started. I have appreciated Sankalak's work since his crossword no. 1 to the last. He was a friend of mine. He has attended some S and B meetings with us here in Chennai.We appreciate many other setters - international and Indian - along with Sankalak. And we never fail to point out mistakes, if any. Do you know that I - among others - have pointed out any slip-up by international masters while blogging/commenting on UK sites and they have accepted them?When we find a fault we point it out. But we don't denigrate puzzle/setter wholesale. We don't call a puzzle 'terrible' without saying why.Have you stopped for a moment to consider why not one in these parts is with you? Mind you many of us have met personally but we never ever carried the impression that any of us is arrogant.Have you picked up any message from today's Comments by various people here?

I am not the enemy here Ask yourselves Haven't you labelled a movie terrible before? Why can't I label a crossword terrible therefore? It'll encourage the setter to set a better puzzle Praise will only bring the standards down

Mahesh, I have had enough of tripe from you. I suggest you do not post your comments any more on my blog as you are not welcome here any more as you insist on posting derogatory comments without substantiation. To avoid the ignominy of having your comments deleted please do not post them here henceforth, this is my decision as the owner of this blog.

Looks like RUFUS got the flak from Chaturvasi (12.54pm), thanks to Mr.Mahesh. Today's crossword was fine and typically Grimanesque! Thanks Colonel for the blog and the League of setters who provide the needed little exercise to the grey cells. I think Mr.Mahesh may go through the last answer of Sara Hayes in the interview published in Crossword Unclued.